


The Shadow of the Mountain in the Light from the Rising Sun

by multifascinate (talkativelock)



Series: Behind the Distant Mountains is the Promise of the Sun [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Allusions to Themes of Slavery, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Blood and Injury, Everyone Goes Commando All the Time, Gratuitous Description of a Shirtless Man, Kageyama Tobio is Sometimes a Sword and Sometimes a Person, M/M, Magic, Outdoor Sex, Pining, Public Nudity, Swords, Villainous Oikawa Tooru, mutual handjobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-25 23:45:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12046797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkativelock/pseuds/multifascinate
Summary: The sword makes the kind of noise people make when they’re pulling on their hair in frustration. It’s a noise Shouyou is familiar with. His mother does it all the time.“Because,” the sword practically growls, “I am Kageyama; King of All Blades, Cleaver of Ten Thousand Armies, and Chosen Weapon of the Flying Hero, Slayer of the Southern Terror and Savior of the Kingdom of Kitagawa.”“Never heard of you,” Shouyou lies.





	The Shadow of the Mountain in the Light from the Rising Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Happy KageHina Day! This project was supposed to be around 5k but look how that turned out. I blame Xeylah, who told me to write it without bothering to properly outline. I didn't even fit everything I wanted in here so who knows, maybe I'll write a sequel someday.
> 
> Special thanks to my beta and fiance, Dory. All remaining mistakes are mine.

Shouyou hunts deer for a living.

He’s not the best at it and it isn’t what he wants to do with his life. What he really wants to do is be a knight for one of the higher courts. Someone worthy of respect. Being a knight requires, among other things, training in horseback riding, chivalry, and swordsmanship. He has none of those things.

What Shouyou does have is pretty decent aim with a bow and a willingness to follow herds for days on foot. He’s quick and a good climber when it comes to scaling trees or rocks to find a better vantage point. He rarely gets lost because he can always climb something high to get a good look around, but sometimes he still finds himself in places unknown without knowing how he got there.

Like, for instance, right now.

He doesn’t recognize the clearing even though he’s hunted his way through this particular patch of woods several times before. It is nestled against the mountain at an angle that stops it from ever getting sunlight, except maybe in the heart of the summer, and that makes the air here cold. There’s a pool of water with no source that Shouyou can see, the surface of which is clouded by algae. Moss grows up the side of the mountain and most of the trees lean away from the cliff face as if seeking the sunlight just out of reach of the mountain’s shadow. In the rock there is a split, like someone pulled it apart, and wedged across that crevice by it’s pommel and tip as if barring entrance is the most beautiful and knightly sword Shouyou has ever seen.

It’s the kind of sword heroes wield. The blade is dark steel and even from a good ten to fifteen paces away Shouyou can see that it’s razor sharp. The handguard is made of a graceful woven pattern of golden metal that locks a sapphire the size of Shouyou’s little sister’s fist in place where the blade meets the hilt. The grip looks like black leather and it looks completely unworn, like the brand new grips the local weaponsmith has for sale back in Shouyou’s hometown. It is an amazing sword and Shouyou doesn’t see an owner in sight.

Shouyou approaches the sword while keeping an eye out for traps or heroic owners who might want Shouyou to stay away from their belongings. He sees no one.

When he’s standing in front of the sword he can’t help but think that it is a work of art. It’s a double edged blade about as long as Shouyou’s arm and the grip is a hand and a half long. It looks like it would be fun to wield.

Shouyou takes one last look around. No one shows up to tell him off for standing too close to the sword. It looks like it has been abandoned here.

He shrugs. “Well, I call dibs,” he says to the empty clearing and he reaches for the sword.

As soon as he touches the sword’s grip a baritone voice says, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Shouyou jumps and lets go of the sword immediately. He looks around the clearing quickly for the sword’s owner that he missed but he doesn’t find anyone.

“Hello?” he calls but only his own voice echoes back to him. He shrugs. “Weird.”

He reaches for the sword again and as soon as his fingertips touch the soft leather the baritone voice is back. 

“-such a complete dumb-”

Shouyou flinches back from the sword again. The voice cuts off when his fingertips leave the grip.

“Oh my gods, did you just talk?” Shouyou asks the sword.

It does not reply.

Shouyou reaches out and grabs the grip fully and is met with absolute silence.

“Uh, hello?” Shouyou calls out.

“No,” the sword replies bitterly.

“What do you mean ‘no’?”

“Exactly what I said. What, are you stupid as well as a dumbass?”

“I’m not stupid.” Shouyou glares at the sword still wedged in the side of the mountain. “Obviously, since I’m the only one of us that knows that swords aren’t supposed to talk.”

“You just haven’t met any good swords then,” the sword replies with disdain in his voice.

“I still haven’t met any good swords,” Shouyou shoots back.

The sword actually trembles in his hand, which is a bit unnerving. “Shut the fuck up, dumbass.”

Shouyou sticks his tongue out at the sword. Light glints off the blade, highlighting what look like flecks of obsidian in the flat of it. It’s weird because there isn’t any direct light here to glint off the blade at all.

“What the hell?” Shouyou asks, “How did you do that?”

“I’m a magic blade, idiot.”

Shouyou makes an excited noise in understanding. “That’s so cool.” 

The sword trembles again. “Well, are you going to draw me out of here or not?”

“Huh?”

“Draw me out of the cliff face,” the sword says in what sounds like a voice through gritted teeth. If, you know, the sword had teeth to grind together.

“What if you’re an evil sword?” Shouyou reasons, suspicious.

“I’m not an evil sword,” the sword snaps back, obviously affronted. 

“I don’t believe you. You seem pretty evil to me.”

The sword makes the kind of noise people make when they’re pulling on their hair in frustration. It’s a noise Shouyou is familiar with. His mother does it all the time.

“Because,” the sword practically growls, “I am Kageyama; King of All Blades, Cleaver of Ten Thousand Armies, and Chosen Weapon of the Flying Hero, Slayer of the Southern Terror and Savior of the Kingdom of Kitagawa.”

“Never heard of you,” Shouyou lies.

“Liar.” Kageyama sounds smug.

Everyone knows the stories of the Flying Hero who pushed back hoards of invading demons and sealed the gateway to hell, singlehandedly saving the entirely of Kitagawa with the King of All Blades in his hand. If Kageyama isn’t lying then he isn’t just a heroic blade, he’s a legendary blade. He’s famous. He’s a household name.

Shouyou is kinda jealous.

“If you are the King of All Blades then what are you doing here wedged in the side of a mountain?” Shouyou asks petulantly.

“None of your fucking business,” Kageyama spits. “Now are you gonna pull me from this mountain or not?”

Given the choice between no legendary sword and a legendary sword with a bad attitude, Shouyou will always pick the sword.

He pulls and Kageyama comes free almost ridiculously easily. Shouyou actually falls backward a bit before catching himself because he was expecting Kageyama to be more firmly wedged in the rock.

“Careful, dumbass,” Kageyama grumbles.

“Shut up,” Shouyou hisses.

Now that Kageyama is free he seems to tremble in Shouyou’s grip, like he wants to be moving through the air in powerful cleaving arcs. Shouyou holds Kageyama up to get a better look at him.

His blade is perfectly straight and doesn’t have a single nick in the metal even though Kageyama has been through a lot. The only imperfections in the smooth dark steel are the flecks of reflective blackness that catch what little light there is when Shouyou tilts the blade. The pattern of interlocking gold bands that make up Kageyama’s handguard are complex and the way they curl around the sapphire almost looks like the lids of a narrowed eye. When Shouyou brings the gem closer to his face to peer into it something glitters in its depths and the sword lurches on its own, smacking the flat of the blade into the top of Shouyou’s head.

“Ow,” Shouyou complains, rubbing his head with his free hand.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Kageyama snaps.

“How can you even see how I’m looking at you?” Shouyou whines. “You don’t have eyes.”

Kageyama makes a scoffing sound. “Magic, idiot.”

“I have a name,” Shouyou tells the sword in his hand. “It’s Hinata Shouyou.”

“Hinata dumbass,” Kageyama says with stress on the second word like he’s correcting Shouyou on his own name.

“Rude, Kageyama.”

Light glints off the gem of the sword in Shouyou’s hand and if Kageyama was a person Shouyou was sure he would be smirking.

Despite Kageyama’s terrible personality Shouyou still keeps him. After all, he is now in possession of one of the most famous swords in myth. He excitedly chatters to Kageyama about the legends of the Flying Hero and Kageyama corrects him on details with a grumpy, affronted air like the fact that the stories Shouyou has heard about things that probably happened hundreds of years ago are wrong personally offends him.

After a few hours the sun starts setting and as Shouyou stops to make camp something that has been bothering him since he first saw Kageyama in the woods can no longer be ignored.

“I can’t believe you don’t even have a scabbard,” Shouyou complains, trying to juggle a blade so sharp it can cut hair lengthwise and the spare bits of wood that he’s been gathering off the ground in order to make a fire.

“I don’t need a scabbard,” Kageyama responds crossly. “I am a deadly weapon.”

“You’re a useless weapon,” Shouyou replies, finally giving up and putting Kageyama down in the grass near to where he plans to build his fire. 

Kageyama does not reply.

Shouyou deftly builds his fire, ignoring the way Kageyama seems to tremble on the ground as if begging to be picked up. It barely takes a minute to prepare the wood, Shouyou’s had a lot of practice, and Shouyou dives into his backpack for his flint and steel. The metallic sound of a sword being unsheathed makes him look up with dread. He has no practice wielding Kageyama yet and would probably be pretty terrible in a fight. The sight that greets him is not a bandit or a poacher or any other type of ruffian.

There is a man standing in the exact spot where Kageyama had been and Kageyama is nowhere to be seen. The man has dark hair that lays flat to his head and shines in the light from the setting sun with a silky reflection that Shouyou’s hair will never have because of its rough curls. His eyes are the same intense dark blue of the gem in Kageyama’s hilt and his skin looks almost bronze it’s so tan. He looks pissed, his eyebrows pulled down over his eyes in a murderous glare and a furious scowl marring features that are probably handsome under normal circumstances. He’s also completely naked.

Shouyou feels a little dizzy with the way that the muscles of the stranger’s chest and abs and thighs stretch and bunch as he stalks up to Shouyou, his movements filled with the grace of a seasoned athlete. Shouyou looks up and locks gazes with this man, who is almost a full head taller than him, as he stops in front of Shouyou. Without breaking eye contact the man reaches into Shouyou’s bag and pulls out a pair of pants. Slowly he pulls them on.

On Shouyou the pants had been fitted leather, not too tight and not too loose, but on this man they stretch tight across his skin and leave little to the imagination. Where they would have come down to Shouyou’s ankles comfortably the hem now stops halfway up the man’s calves and digs into the muscled flesh there. Shouyou’s mouth feels a little dry.

“Uh, hi,” he says to the stranger in a high voice. The stranger’s glare gets even sharper, almost as sharp as Kageyama’s legendary blade. “You haven’t happened to see a ridiculously beautiful sword laying around anywhere, have you?”

With a quick movement the stranger grabs the top of Shouyou’s head and squeezes. 

Kageyama says, “You’re such a dumbass.”

“Kageyama?” Shouyou asks the man, except that can’t be true because the man’s lips never moved. Shouyou knows. He was watching them with more focus than is probably appropriate.

“Who else?” Kageyama snaps, again without moving his lips.

“How are you talking without, you know, talking?”

“How many times do I have to say the word magic before you understand it?” Kageyama practically yells at him. Again without moving his lips. Shouyou’s life is getting really weird.

Shouyou’s eyes are starting to water with how hard Kageyama is squeezing his head. “Let go, Kageyama, it hurts.”

Kageyama eases off Shouyou’s scalp but he doesn’t let go.

“Dumbass,” Kageyama chides again, the tone in his voice less harsh.

Shouyou pouts up at him. “How are you even a person right now? You were a sword just a minute ago.”

Kageyama huffs air out through his nose. “You’re an idiot.”

Now that Kageyama isn’t squeezing Shouyou’s head his hand is just kinda resting in Shouyou’s hair, fingers woven through the curls. It feels nice. Shouyou kinda wants to lean into it but he doesn’t. Kageyama probably wouldn’t take it well.

It’s not fair, how ridiculously attractive a person Kageyama turns into.

“Wait, so are you a person that turns into a sword or a sword that turns into a person?” Shouyou asks.

Kageyama’s eyes slide away from Shouyou’s and his glare softens into a more passive frown, like he’s thinking it over. He doesn’t seem to notice the way that Shouyou licks his lips at how beautiful the softer expression makes him look.

“Both, I guess.” Kageyama says.

“Gah, this is so confusing.” Shouyou complains, brushing Kageyama’s completely relaxed hand off of his head. Kageyama’s gaze snaps back to Shouyou, glare back in full force, but he says nothing.

Shouyou reaches into his bag and grabs his flint and steel. Kageyama backs up so Shouyou can finish lighting the fire. The entire time Kageyama says nothing, even when Shouyou pulls the jerky he uses as trail rations out of his bag. Shouyou glances at Kageyama, not sure why he’s being so quiet, to see Kageyama sitting on a nearby log watching him with a petulant expression on his face.

“Are you hungry?” Shouyou asks him. “Do you even need to eat?”

Kageyama glares but says nothing.

“Are you giving me the silent treatment?”

In a fluid movement Kageyama stands up, the leather of his borrowed pants almost rippling in the light from the campfire. He stalks over to Shouyou like a predator and Shouyou does not gulp.

Kageyama holds out a hand, palm up.

“Uh, okay.” Shouyou says, dropping a piece of jerky into it.

Kageyama rolls his eyes and snatches Shouyou’s wrist with the hand not filled with deer jerky. His skin is cool where it touches Shouyou’s and it almost makes Shouyou jump.

“I don’t need to eat,” comes Kageyama’s voice, “but I like to.”

“Kageyama,” Shouyou says with surprised understanding, “do you have to be touching someone for them to hear you?”

Kageyama doesn’t meet Shouyou’s eyes and drops Shouyou’s wrist. It’s pretty obvious what that means.

“You should have said something,” Shouyou complains. “I wouldn’t have brushed you off earlier if I had known that.”

Kageyama gives Shouyou a strange look, like he’s not sure he heard Shouyou right. Shouyou reaches out and grabs Kageyama’s hand.

“What the fuck,” Kageyama says, but it’s not a question.

“Don’t be so grumpy, Kageyama,” Shouyou says, ignoring the way his heart picks up speed when he pushes their palms together. He squeezes Kageyama’s hand a little, trying to be reassuring, but Kageyama jumps and shakes off his hand like it burned him. He doesn’t back off though, snatching Shouyou’s wrist instead for a much less intimate point of contact. 

Shouyou hides his disappointment with chatter. Kageyama complains when he talks with his mouth open but Shouyou ignores him. They get all the way to bedtime without Shouyou running out of questions about the Flying Hero and when Shouyou pulls out his bedroll Kageyama pulls away.

“Kageyama,” Shouyou whines as he snatches Kageyama’s wrist before he can get very far.

“I don’t need to sleep, dumbass.” Kageyama snaps. Something about the tone of Kageyama’s voice makes Shouyou give Kageyama a once over.

He doesn’t look cold. He’s still only wearing the tight leather pants because all of Shouyou’s shirts are too small but there isn’t a goosebump in sight on his muscled frame. Something about the way he holds himself makes him look uncomfortable, or maybe it’s the tightness around his eyes that goes beyond the bad tempered glare Kageyama usually wears that is giving his discomfort away. Still, Kageyama can’t hate Shouyou too much because his wrist is hanging passively in Shouyou’s grip and Shouyou is sure that Kageyama would rip it away if he was actually angry.

“What’s wrong?” Shouyou asks suspiciously.

Kageyama looks away from Shouyou. “Nothing. Go to bed.”

No amount of complaining gets Kageyama to tell him what his issue is and eventually Shouyou gives up, if only because he actually does require sleep.

…

So Kageyama and Shouyou head back towards Shouyou’s hometown. The first leg of their journey is retracing Shouyou’s path through the woods and back towards the road.

Sometimes Kageyama travels in his sword form, carried in Shouyou’s hand and used to hack through the rougher patches of undergrowth Shouyou would normally go around. Kageyama is not a fan of this use of his sword form, grumbling about it every time. Still, he never transforms to get out of it so it can’t be that bad.

Other times Kageyama travels beside him as a human in nothing but too tight leather pants. These times are extremely distracting for Shouyou. The way that Kageyama’s skin catches the light that filters through the trees or the way his bangs swish in an arc as he turns his head, or gods help Shouyou when he occasionally bends over to examine something and Shouyou gets a good look at his muscled backside flexing under tight leather. It’s both ridiculously unfair and makes a certain amount of sense that the most beautiful and powerful sword in legend turns into the most attractive man that Shouyou has ever seen.

Throughout their travels they are always in contact so that Shouyou can hear Kageyama’s grumpy responses to his babbling and complaining. Usually Kageyama keeps a hold of Shouyou’s wrist in a loose grip. Sometimes, if Kageyama wants to use his hands for something like inspecting a rock or whatever other boring thing he decides to do with an almost frightening amount of focus, Shouyou will put a hand on Kageyama’s muscled arms or torso to keep in contact. Those moments never fail to make Shouyou’s mouth water as he feels Kageyama’s back muscles bunch and flex under the pads of his fingers in time with the movements of Kageyama’s arms.

Despite the fact that Kageyama changes from a sword to a human and back regularly Shouyou never actually sees him do it. It probably has to do with the fact that when he transforms back into a sword the pants fall into a crumpled heap and Kageyama has to put them back on again when he turns back. Shouyou gets the feeling that while Kageyama isn’t ashamed of his body, and why would he be with a body like that, he doesn’t want Shouyou to see him completely naked again for some reason.

Over the course of those few days traveling in the woods together Shouyou and Kageyama get to know each other pretty well, in part because Shouyou loves to talk and Kageyama seems to love to respond. Shouyou learns that Kageyama is a swordfighting nerd and has missed the taste of milk in the time since he has been able to drink it because Kageyama tells him so. He guesses that Kageyama had been in that cliff face a long time by the way that Kageyama responds with surprise and discomfort when Shouyou mentions the Seijoh Royal Family.

Even though they argue a lot they make it to the road in the evening of the third day without killing each other. Kageyama is in sword form for reasons that Shouyou has forgotten and they are currently arguing about who can climb trees the fastest.

“I’m taller,” Kageyama says impatiently, “and my limbs are longer. There’s no way you can keep up.”

Shouyou absentmindedly swings Kageyama through the air. The blade makes a humming sound as it arcs that Shouyou finds he really likes. “Yeah, but I literally climb trees all the time so there’s no way you can beat me. I have more practice.”

Kageyama makes an annoyed noise. Its the same noise that he made right before challenging Shouyou to a rock skipping contest the day before, which Kageyama had won because he’s a jerk. Shouyou pauses in his swing, expecting the challenge, but it never comes. Kageyama is suspiciously silent.

“Well?” Shouyou prompts.

“Well, what?” says a voice that is not Kageyama.

Shouyou jumps what feels like a foot in the air. Just up the road from him are a pair of fully armored men that Shouyou hadn’t even noticed because he was so caught up in his argument with Kageyama.

One of them is thin with brown hair and laughing eyes. The other is stocky with pale hair and a serious expression. They have the Moniwa family crest painted on their chest pieces and sheathed swords within arms reach. They are sitting and leaning against the base of a tree by the side of the road with their horses tied to a low hanging branch.

Knights, Shouyou realizes, from the Dateko provence.

For a second Shouyou just stares at them blankly and they stare back with amusement or blank curiosity, depending on the knight. Then Shouyou realizes that as far as they know he’s just talking to himself because they aren’t touching Kageyama so they can’t hear his voice.

“That’s a really nice sword you’ve got there,” the brown haired one says with a voice that almost sounds teasing.

“Um,” Shouyou says, suddenly sweating. Kageyama is a legendary blade, what if they want him for themselves?

“Snap out of it,” Kageyama hisses in a voice only Shouyou can hear.

The brown haired knight stands up smoothly with the kind of grace Kageyama has, the grace of an athlete. The light haired knight follows suit and he is terrifyingly tall. Shouyou feels tiny and useless. He’s holding a sword that in the right hands can obliterate entire armies but he doesn’t know how to use Kageyama.

“Uh,” Shouyou says louder.

“It doesn’t seem like the kind of sword someone like you should have,” the brown haired one continues. “You might hurt someone.”

Shouyou may not know how to wield a sword but he can recognize bullies when he sees them and he’s never backed down from a fight in his life. Shouyou slides his backpack off his shoulders and then squares them, moving his feet apart like he does when he plays heroes with his little sister. They used unbalanced sticks as swords then but the idea is probably the same as when he’s trying not to get welts from Natsu’s relentless attacks. With both hands on Kageyama’s grip he moves the tip of the sword towards the knights.

“None of your business.” Shouyou tells the knight.

“Dumbass,” Kageyama grumbles, “your form is all wrong.”

Both knights look surprised. The brown haired one seems to be the talker because he’s the one who responds. “You gonna fight us, little swordsman?”

“Move your right foot forward a little and get up on the balls of your feet,” Kageyama continues as if the knight hadn’t spoken at all. Shouyou does it but Kageyama berates him immediately. “Not that far forward, you dumbass.”

Shouyou tries to correct his feet hastily but loses his balance, letting go of Kageyama with one hand to steady himself. The brown haired knight laughs but Shouyou can barely hear him over Kageyama’s curses.

“Futakuchi,” the big one admonishes in a deep voice.

Futakuchi stops laughing to frown at his companion. “Aw, come on Aone, that was funny.”

Aone just gives Futakuchi an almost unreadable look that makes Futakuchi sigh. “What Moniwa doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” he grumbles before turning back to Shouyou. “Listen, that sword is way too good to not be in a knight’s hands. How about we trade?”

Shouyou shakes his head so rapidly the world blurs, his stomach doing flips in his belly that are making him nauseous. 

“We could always fight for it,” Futakuchi says, smirking. Aone huffs out a breath through his nose but doesn’t say anything else. Futakuchi draws his sword with practiced ease.

Suddenly the nerves in Shouyou’s gut leave him and he feels empty and calm. Maybe it’s the adrenaline spiking in his system. He hears his own voice say, “I’m gonna win,” and then Futakuchi rushes him.

Futakuchi is faster than Shouyou’s sister and he barely moves Kageyama in time to deflect Futakuchi’s sword. There’s no time to think because Futakuchi is swinging again and Kageyama is cursing at Shouyou loudly. 

“What the fuck is that, dumbass?”

“Shut up. I don’t know what I’m doing, okay.” Shouyou shouts back at Kageyama, just barely ducking under Futakuchi’s blade. Futakuchi falters at Shouyou’s outburst but it’s only a moment before he’s swinging down again.

“You idiot,” Kagayama snarls.

Shouyou tries to bring Kageyama up to catch Futakuchi’s sword before it makes contact with his skin but he can tell that he won’t make it in time. Suddenly, Kageyama lurches sideways in Shouyou’s hand. Not only does Kageyama catch Futakuchi’s blade but he drives it back with a smooth sword stroke.

“What-” Shouyou starts but Kageyama cuts him off.

“Magic blade, you dumbass, now pay attention.”

Futakuchi backs up a pace, maybe to regroup, before moving in on Shouyou again. Shouyou brings his sword arm up and Kageyama moves on his own. Futakuchi’s blade is pushed away by Kageyama again and again.

“Bring your other arm up to counterbalance.” Kageyama commands and Shouyou tries it. Suddenly Kageyama’s strokes are smoother.

Futakuchi swipes downward and Kageyama dives to intercept him but he isn’t quite fast enough. Shouyou cries out when Futakuchi’s blade bites into his shin.

“Dumbass, move your feet,” Kageyama snaps. He’s quivering in Shouyou’s hand.

The cut on Shouyou’s leg burns, but when Futakuchi swipes downward again at Shouyou’s weak point Shouyou manages to dance backwards and out of range.

“Hinata, lean forward.” Kageyama’s voice is a shout in Shouyou’s ear and Shouyou follows his command, his sword hand coming up to keep his balance. Apparently this is exactly what Kageyama wants.

Kageyama swipes through the air in front of Shouyou in an arc, dragging Shouyou’s arm along with him, and there’s a sound like thunder as the blade leaves a trail of stars behind it. For a split second they just hang there in the air and then they each combust into little explosions, knocking Futakuchi back into his companion. Shouyou stumbles from the force of it, barely keeping his feet underneath him. 

Aone catches Futakuchi, holding him up easily even though Futakuchi is still wearing his armor. 

“What the fuck?” Futakuchi says.

Shouyou stares at the knights, breathing hard. “Magic.” He says, because that’s the only explanation Kageyama would give him if he asked.

“Obviously,” Kageyama scoffs, as if agreeing with his explanation. It’s too bad the knights can’t hear him.

Aone bows to Shouyou, Futakuchi still in his arms, and turns to deposit Futakuchi on his horse. Futakuchi grumbles but doesn’t complain and before Shouyou can figure out what is going on they’re riding off into the sunset.

Shouyou’s leg really hurts. With a whine he drops Kageyama and sits down on the road, reaching for his hurt leg. 

There’s the sound of metal sliding against metal and Kageyama transforms where Shouyou can see for the first time. The golden interlocking ribbons of metal that make up Kageyama’s crossguard shift and stretch, unwinding themselves. At first Shouyou thinks that the gem is going to fall out but there’s no time to react as the gem practically melts into the metal of the sword behind it. The golden bands are growing and layering, covering the entire sword from view, and then in the blink of an eye Kageyama is standing there in all his naked glory with a scowl on his face, his dark blue eyes shining in the orange light of the setting sun. The entire process is over so fast it makes Shouyou’s head spin.

Kageyama falls to his knees in the dirt of the road and swats Shouyou’s hands away from his shin. He pulls Shouyou’s pant leg up.

“Ow, Kageyama, what are you-”

“Shut up, dumbass.” Kageyama growls, his fingertips resting gently on the skin around the cut.

That’s all it really is, a cut. It doesn’t look that deep and it’s not bleeding that much but for some reason it hurts more than any other cut of that depth Shouyou has ever gotten. Shouyou has never been cut by a sword so maybe that has something to do with it.

Kageyama stares at the cut with that intensity he gets sometimes, his fingers brushing over it tenderly. He’s mostly just succeeding at smearing the blood around but the edges of the cut are a little clearer when he wipes the blood away from the cut itself, even if the area around it looks gross now.

“It’s not that bad, Kageyama,” Shouyou says through clenched teeth, ignoring the way Kageyama’s fingers make the cut sting.

“I said shut up.”

“Are you gonna heal it with magic?” Shouyou asks.

Kageyama stills and then looks away, his fingers falling from the cut. They aren’t touching anymore and it feels weird to not hear Kageyama’s grumpy baritone voice so Shouyou reaches out and lays a hand on the side of Kageyama’s neck.

“Well, are you?” Shouyou prompts when Kageyama looks at him.

“I can’t heal things with magic,” Kageyama says, sounding put out, “I’m a deadly weapon. I only break things.”

Kageyama shakes off Shouyou’s hand and stands up, reminding Shouyou that Kageyama still isn’t wearing pants. Shouyou looks away from toned thighs and other things with a flush rising in his cheeks. Kageyama steps around Shouyou and walks the seven or so paces over to where Shouyou dropped his bag. Shouyou can hear him digging around in it and he busies himself with pulling off his sock and boot before they get too ruined by blood. It’s better that he doesn’t see Kageyama’s bare ass in all it’s toned glory.

Suddenly Kageyama is back in front of him. He’s still naked and the flex in his thighs as he drops into a crouch is unfair.

“Kageyama, what are you- ow!”

Kageyama pours water from Shouyou’s waterskin over the cut, washing off the blood. It’s probably a good thing but it stings. In his other hand Kageyama holds Shouyou’s meager first aid kit.

“Kageyama,” Shouyou whines, but Kageyama gives him a sharp look to cut his words off. Then he opens the wooden box and digs around for a moment before pulling out the bandages.

Carefully, Kageyama starts wrapping the bandages around Shouyou’s leg, starting just under his knee and working his way down in quick, practiced movements.

“I can do it,” Shouyou complains even though Kageyama is already almost done. “You should put on pants.”

“Fu-” Kageyama’s eyes go wide and he jerks his fingers back from Shouyou’s skin, cutting off whatever he was going to say.

He stands quickly and heads back towards Shouyou’s bag. This time Shouyou watches him go, helpless against the muscular shape of Kageyama’s ass and the dimples in his lower back. 

“Kageyama, did you forget you weren’t wearing pants?” Shouyou wonders aloud as Kageyama grabs the pants that have become his and starts to pull the first leg on. 

Kageyama stills and then grabs Shouyou’s bag and chucks it over his shoulder at Shouyou. Shouyou pitches himself to the side in order to avoid being hit in the head, laughing the entire time.

At least now Kageyama is too distracted to notice that Shouyou’s pants were getting a little tight in front.

...

Starting the next day Kageyama teaches Shouyou how to wield a sword. 

He is a terrible teacher. The absolute worst. He somehow manages to carve two large branches into wooden swords overnight and chases Shouyou around with one all day, beating him up while Shouyou tries to defend himself. 

The worst part isn’t the welts that Shouyou is sporting by the end of the day. The worst part is that Shouyou and Kageyama have barely touched each other all day and Shouyou misses the sound of Kageyama’s voice so much that the occasional brush of skin they have so that Kageyama can insult him and offer advice on his form at the same time is heavenly. A few times Kageyama corrects Shouyou’s form physically, standing behind him and adjusting his hips with a firm grip or nudging Shouyou’s feet apart the correct amount with a knee between his. Every time Shouyou is barely able to suppress a shiver.

Kageyama looks unfairly good all day too. His arm muscles are lean and defined and the way they move under his skin as he swings the practice sword distracts Shouyou enough to earn himself a few welts. His chest feels amazing pushed up against Shouyou’s back or under Shouyou’s hand when he loses his balance from his terrible footwork. The tight leather of his pants hides nothing of Kageyama’s ass or thighs.

Basically, Shouyou is going to die because Kageyama is going to kill him for ogling instead of paying attention to proper sword forms.

The day after that Shouyou is ridiculously sore. The muscles used to swing a sword around are different than the muscles used to climb a tree or shoot a bow or carry a full sized buck on your back for days on end, not to mention how many welts he has now. Kageyama doesn’t let him rest, however, not from sword training and not from the sight of his flexing pecs in the midday sunlight.

A few days after that they’re getting close to Shouyou’s hometown. Shouyou has managed to get Kageyama to agree to a break. Kageyama’s fingers are looped loosely around Shouyou’s wrist, easily being dragged around by Shouyou’s hands as he gestures while telling a story about his sister. Kageyama’s sharp blue eyes stay on Shouyou’s face as he talks, his voice providing comments on Shouyou’s past failings with a teasing smugness.

The sound of horses approaching causes Shouyou to look up. He stops talking and Kageyama glares up the road at the two horses headed right for them.

Shouyou cannot believe this. That is Oikawa Tooru, current king of Seijoh, and his personal knight Iwaizumi. There is royalty in the middle of nowhere and it’s headed right for them and Kageyama is still only wearing a pair of amazingly tight leather pants that leave very little to the imagination.

“Uh,” Shouyou says intelligently, drawing the sound out for a full two seconds as he tries to think.

“Close your mouth, dumbass, you’ll catch flies,” Kageyama grumbles.

“Maybe you don’t know this because you’ve been stuck in the side of a mountain, Kageyama, but that’s the king of the entire country.”

Kageyama pulls a face. The horses keep getting closer. “He looks like Oikawa Tooru.”

Shouyou stares at him. “He is Oikawa Tooru. Fourth of his name or whatever.”

Kageyama’s head whips around to look at Shouyou with an audible crack, his bangs swinging across his forehead in a way that Shouyou would stop to admire if he had time. “What?”

Shouyou can’t reply because King Oikawa has pulled up in front of them and is fixing them with a sweet smile that clearly hides steel. 

“There you are, Chibi-chan. I hear you have something that belongs to my family.”

Kageyama curses, shifting into something like a fight stance. Shouyou stares up at King Oikawa.

“I don’t think I do?”

King Oikawa narrows his eyes. 

The king’s personal knight nudges his horse forward a few paces, a subtle threat. “The sword, kid.”

“Oh, that,” Shouyou says, eyeing Kageyama. “Uh, I don’t have it.”

Iwaizumi looks between Shouyou, Kageyama, and where Kageyama is still holding on to Shouyou’s wrist with a frown. King Oikawa eyes them with suspicion for a moment and then his expression clears.

“You know,” the king says mildly but with a knowing glint in his eye, “the stories passed down in my family mention that the sword takes many forms, doesn’t it Tobio-chan?”

At first Shouyou thinks that King Oikawa is talking to his knight but Kageyama gets more tense, if that’s even possible, and slides his hand down from Shouyou’s wrist and into Shouyou’s palm. Shouyou wishes he could enjoy the way Kageyama’s palm feels against his.

Tobio, Shouyou realizes, means Flying Hero.

“If that were true then the sword would be a person and people can’t be kept, or whatever,” Shouyou tells the king. “That’s wrong.”

Kageyama freezes and then turns to look at Shouyou with wide, disbelieving eyes. It’s the first time he’s looked away from King Oikawa since he showed up.

The king sighs. “Listen, Chibi-chan, I don’t need you to understand I just need you to give me back my family sword.”

“Hinata,” Kageyama says. He’s still not looking at King Oikawa. Instead his eyes are glued to Shouyou’s face. “Are you ready?”

Shouyou squeezes Kageyama’s hand and looks at the king and his knight. “I can’t give away something no one owns.”

Kageyama takes that as confirmation and transforms.

It feels strange to have Kageyama’s normally skin textured hand transform into metal and then leather in less than a second but somehow that’s what happens. Kageyama feels light in his hand when it’s over and Shouyou isn’t sure if that’s because of the last few days of training or if Kageyama is somehow making himself lighter.

“Iwa-chan,” King Oikawa calls out and Iwaizumi dismounts his horse and draws his sword in the same breath. He’s probably one of the most skilled swordsmen in the entire kingdom, you would have to be in order to be considered the king’s personal knight, and Shouyou tries not to feel intimidated.

“Drop the sword, kid,” Iwaizumi says, starting to circle Shouyou with sure steps. Shouyou makes to mirror him but Kageyama’s voice stops him.

“Don’t, it’s a trap. He’s trying to put you between him and Oikawa.”

Shouyou almost stumbles and then follows Iwaizumi to the side instead of mirroring him. Iwaizumi frowns.

“Tobio-chan,” King Oikawa admonishes from atop his horse, “are you giving the shrimp advice?”

Shouyou scowls, his eyes sliding over to the king for a moment, and Kageyama’s blade glints in his hand in what Shouyou can now recognize as irritation. The moment of inattentiveness is what Iwaizumi seems to have been waiting for, however, and he lunges for Shouyou with his sword poised to thrust. Shouyou yelps and swipes down and to the side with Kageyama while trying to back away from the sword point as quickly as possible.

With Kageyama whistling through the air faster than Shouyou could possibly move him on his own he manages to deflect the blow for the most part. Iwaizumi's blade grazes Shouyou’s hip and Shouyou hisses from the pain.

Kageyama starts swearing in earnest while Shouyou fends off Iwaizumi’s next few attacks. Iwaizumi is extremely strong, the clashes of their swords making Shouyou’s arms feel like rubber.

“A little help here?” Shouyou complains, not caring if the king and his knight hear him. They already know that Kageyama is a person who can talk to Shouyou anyway.

“Do you trust me?” demands Kageyama.

“Of course,” Shouyou replies immediately, just barely managing to deflect one of the Iwaizumi’s strong swings.

“Don’t try anything,” Iwaizumi warns.

“Get some distance from him,” Kageyama commands. “Get out of his range.”

Shouyou backs up but the knight won’t let him get very far. In the background King Oikawa dismounts from his horse. Kageyama starts swearing again.

“Close your eyes,” Kageyama shouts.

Shouyou slams his eyes closed and then he feels something hot on his face, like when he puts his face too close to a fire. He hears King Oikawa and Iwaizumi cursing and negative images light up on the back of Shouyou’s eyelids. Shouyou realizes that Kageyama is glowing so brightly that the king and his knight are going to have to close their eyes too.

“Back up, back up, back up.”

Shouyou follows Kageyama’s lead, backpedaling while he still can. 

“Okay that’s good,” Kageyama says in a voice that sounds out of breath.

Shouyou stops as the light fades and he opens his eyes to see the king and his knight rubbing at their faces.

“What now?” Shouyou asks.

“Keep your distance,” Kageyama says. Then his blade starts getting darker.

Shouyou steadies Kageyama with his off hand on the pommel and points the tip straight at Iwaizumi, who starts blinking his eyes as if recovering from the brightness already. Shouyou can see the moment his vision starts to really clear because his eyes focus on Shouyou.

“Hajime,” King Oikawa complains, “it hurts.”

Iwaizumi makes an irritated sound in the back of his throat.

“Uh, Kageyama?”

Kageyama doesn’t reply and Iwaizumi takes a step forward, swiping at his eyes again with his free hand as if trying to clear his vision faster.

“Kageyama.” Shouyou repeats, nervous. Kageyama’s blade is black as pitch now and Shouyou desperately wants Kageyama to do something. 

Iwaizumi gives his head a good shake and takes another step towards Shouyou. Shouyou backs up, keeping his distance as promised. Iwaizumi scowls and takes a few more rapid steps.

“Hey, Kageyama, what now?” Shouyou asks again, trying to keep moving backwards.

“Stop moving,” Kageyama snaps, sounding even more grumpy than normal.

Shouyou stops and Iwaizumi picks up his pace, closing the distance quickly.

Kageyama leaps forward in Shouyou’s hand with such force that Shouyou almost loses his grip on the sword. The world seems to shatter and when everything rights itself the king and his knight are gone.

Shouyou suddenly feels sick. He drops Kageyama and scrambles to the side of the road to throw up in the bushes. Somewhere behind him is the telltale sound of a sword being unsheathed and Shouyou can only hope that it’s Kageyama transforming back into a person.

After a few moments Shouyou finishes emptying his stomach of his lunch. He wipes at his mouth, still feeling ridiculously nauseous, and glances over his shoulder to see Kageyama pulling his pants back on. They had fallen off when Kageyama had transformed into a sword.

“What was that?” Shouyou’s voice shakes.

Kageyama walks over to Shouyou and some part of Shouyou’s brain is noticing the way that Kageyama hasn’t even done up the laces of the front of his pants and the wiry hair in the v of his legs is still visible. The rest of him is busy freaking out.

With the stretch of leather Kageyama crouches next to Shouyou and reaches past him to snag Shouyou’s waterskin out of his bag. He offers up up like an apology. When Shouyou reaches out to take it Kageyama holds the contact of their fingers for a few seconds.

“Everyone throws up the first time.” Kageyama sounds nervous. He lets go of the waterskin and Shouyou uses it to rinse his mouth out. He immediately feels better.

“The first time what?” Shouyou asks.

Kageyama glances at Shouyou but quickly looks away. His hand comes up to press against Shouyou’s cheek gently. “I teleported them. It kinda displaces reality here for a second and it can be really weird.”

“Where did you teleport them?”

Kageyama licks his lips and Shouyou finds his eyes tracking the movement. “I don’t really know where things go when I do that.”

Shouyou frowns. “Then how do you know that you teleported them.”

Kageyama wrinkles his nose a little bit. “I’m not sure how to explain it, I just do.”

Shouyou sighs, suddenly exhausted, and leans into Kageyama’s palm. Kageyama’s eyes slide back to Shouyou. Normally Shouyou would feel embarrassed about it but he’s suddenly too tired to care. Instead he closes his eyes so that he doesn’t have to think about it.

“That was scary,” Shouyou says, “I thought they were going to kill me and take you as a prize or something.”

Kageyama’s thumb slides against Shouyou’s cheek. “I wouldn’t let them do that. With me you’re invincible.”

“Yeah,” Shouyou says. 

Then his hip throbs as if to argue.

Shouyou opens his eyes and pulls back from Kageyama to look down at the stain of dark red that has been slowly spreading through his shirt. Kageyama follows his line of sight and then his eyes go wide in alarm. He grabs at Shouyou’s shirt and pulls it up roughly, knocking Shouyou over onto his other side in the process. Shouyou drops the waterskin in surprise. Kageyama makes ridiculously quick work of the front of Shouyou’s pants.

“Ow, Kageyama,” Shouyou hisses as Kageyama peels back Shouyou’s pants from the wound. Shouyou pushes himself up onto his elbow so he can look down at his own hip where Kageyama is holding the fabric away. 

His hip is covered in blotchy patches of blood, the fabric having forced it to collect in strange places, and the way that Kageyama holds Shouyou’s pants back is coming dangerously close to revealing certain parts of himself that Shouyou is nervous for Kageyama to see. His priorities may be a little skewed because he’s not sure which is worse, the thought that his hip might be seriously injured or the thought that Kageyama might see his dick and not even care.

There’s no time to be self-conscious, Kageyama is ripping open Shouyou’s backpack with the hand that isn’t holding Shouyou’s pants down and diving in to retrieve the first aid kit again. The look on Kageyama’s face can only be described as furious.

“Kageyama,” Shouyou pleads, trying to get Kageyama to slow down as he drops the first aid kit beside Shouyou’s hip and reaches for Shouyou’s waterskin. The blood is coming much faster from this wound than it had from the leg one the other day and Shouyou can’t really see what’s going on.

Kageyama wastes no time in opening it and emptying its contents on Shouyou’s hip. The water stings as it washes more blood into the cloth of Shouyou’s pants. The wet fabric is now cold against Shouyou’s skin and he shivers.

The wound that is revealed is longer and deeper than Shouyou thought it would be for the amount of blood he saw. It actually looks bad. Kageyama clenches his jaw and then digs into the first aid kit for the bandages.

“Kageyama, slow down. I’m fine.”

Kageyama gives Shouyou a look that could slice a mountain in half but lets the fingers of the hand that is holding Shouyou’s pants back slide forward to touch Shouyou’s skin just below his hip. The contact makes Shouyou feel warm all over.

“Why is it that you can’t go one fight without getting hurt?”

“I’d say I’m doing pretty well,” Shouyou argues. “I’ve never been in a real fight before so at least we’re winning.”

Kageyama scowls. “Of course we’re winning, you have me.”

Shouyou snorts and punches Kageyama lightly in the shoulder. “Wow, way to be full of yourself.”

Kageyama rolls his eyes and returns to his task less frenzied than before. “We’re going to need to get you out of these pants in order to put the bandages on properly.”

“Really?” Shouyou asks, his voice going a little high pitched.

Kageyama shoots him a confused look. “Obviously, dumbass.”

“Well, can we do it not here?”

Kageyama blinks and looks around the patch of road. “We should do it soon.”

“Let’s just go find somewhere to build a fire away from the road and then we can rest for the night, okay?” Shouyou pleads, “I’m not super into the idea of every random passerby seeing me naked.”

Kageyama doesn’t meet his eyes. “Okay.”

After an awkward moment Kageyama backs up from Shouyou, finally leaving enough room for Shouyou to sit back up. Kageyama helps him to his feet and then they grab Shouyou’s backpack and head into the woods.

Finding somewhere to set up camp is pretty easy. Kageyama does most of the work, gathering fallen tree branches as they walk and lighting a fire with magic. He’s starting to look a little pale and Shouyou worries that Kageyama might be overexerting himself with the magic. Teleporting the king and his knight couldn’t have been easy.

Once a fire is started Kageyama approaches Shouyou with the bandages in his hands. Shouyou is sitting on the ground trying to blot away the fresh blood with an old shirt from his bag. It’s an awkward angle, Shouyou is forced to lean back and support himself with his free hand to stop the skin from bunching funny and hurting himself worse while craning his neck forward to try and get the best view of it. 

Kageyama crouches down and touches the back of Shouyou’s hand. “Let me do it, dumbass.”

Shouyou lets Kageyama take the shirt from him and Kageyama gets to work. He’s gentle as he blots the skin around the wound, steadying himself with a hand splayed on the back of Shouyou’s hip.

When Kageyama starts tugging insistently at his pants, trying to move them out of the way so he can bandage the wound, Shouyou lifts his hips a little and lets Kageyama tug them down and off completely.

Shouyou watches Kageyama’s face as he settles over Shouyou’s opposite knee and starts bandaging Shouyou’s hip. He looks for a blush or any other indication that Kageyama cares that Shouyou is currently naked from the waist down but he can’t see anything. Kageyama’s attention is fully focused on his hands as he wraps the bandages around Shouyou’s hips and then a little around his thigh to keep it in place. His bangs shadow his downturned eyes and his expression remains completely neutral. 

Shouyou’s heart plummets. Of course the most amazing and attractive person Shouyou has ever met who also happens to be an extremely powerful sword doesn’t care. As a sword, does Kageyama even have a sex drive? He knows that Kageyama has the equipment in his human form, he’s seen it a few times now.

Kageyama finishes the bandage, tying it off, and lets his fingers rest on the outside of Shouyou’s bare thigh. Shouyou wills himself not to react even though the contact makes heat flash through his veins. He’s already failing.

“I’m sorry,” Kageyama says, and his voice makes it sound like an admission.

“Why?”

Kageyama still isn’t meeting Shouyou’s eyes. “If I had stayed with the Oikawa family you wouldn’t be getting hurt all the time.”

“That’s stupid.” Shouyou frowns and Kageyama stiffens. “If you had stayed with the Oikawa family I would never have met you, and you’re amazing.”

Kageyama raises his head slowly to meet Shouyou’s eyes. There’s not even a hint of blush on his face but his pupils are blown so wide there’s only a thin ring of blue to reflect the firelight. Something about the look on his face makes Shouyou’s breath catch in his throat.

Very slowly Shouyou raises a hand to touch Kageyama’s face. There’s plenty of time for Kageyama to move away but he doesn’t, he just lets Shouyou’s hand rest on his cheek.

“Tobio means flying hero, doesn’t it.” It isn’t a question.

Slowly Kageyama nods his head. He’s leaning forward towards Shouyou now and Shouyou isn’t sure if he’s dragging Kageyama closer or if Kageyama is leaning forward on his own.

“Are you the flying hero?”

Kageyama shakes his head just as slowly. “They only call my wielder that because I can make them fly. The name just stuck.”

Shouyou thinks about flying with Kageyama and his breathing comes a little faster. “How?”

Kageyama licks his lips. One of his hands slides through the dirt so he can keep his balance. He’s practically leaning over Shouyou now. 

“Magic.”

Shouyou wants to laugh. “Of course.”

Kageyama’s hand slides up from Shouyou’s thigh and along Shouyou’s bandages lightly. Shouyou can’t suppress the shiver this time and Kageyama’s eyes seem to sharpen. His thumb dips to the inside of Shouyou’s hipbone, far enough away from the actual wound that there’s no risk of hurting him, and Shouyou can’t stop his sharp intake of breath.

With how far Kageyama is leaning over Shouyou the hand pushed to Kageyama’s face is being forced into a strange angle. Shouyou drags it down Kageyama’s neck to grip his shoulder.

“Hinata.” Kageyama’s voice sounds a little ragged. His forehead drops and at first Shouyou thinks that it will hit his forehead but Kageyama bypasses it completely to settle onto Shouyou’s shoulder. “Did you mean it?”

“Mean what?” Shouyou asks quietly, moving his hand to the back of Kageyama’s neck and squeezing lightly. Kageyama shivers and his grip on Shouyou’s hip tightens. The sword wound burns slightly but not enough for Shouyou to complain.

“That I don’t belong to you.”

“People don’t belong to anyone,” Shouyou says. 

Kageyama is crowding into Shouyou enough that Shouyou drops down to his elbow to take the pressure off of his wrist. Kageyama follows him, hovering over Shouyou. His head is no longer tucked into Shouyou’s skin but it’s close enough that Shouyou still can’t see Kageyama’s face. He feels Kageyama’s breathing against his shoulder, slow and steady but no less harsh than Shouyou’s own. It makes Shouyou bite his lip.

“But I do belong to you,” Kageyama says with such conviction that it makes Shouyou gasp. Or maybe it’s the way that Kageyama’s lips touch down on Shouyou’s skin at the exact same time.

Shouyou tangles his fingers in the back of Kageyama’s hair as Kageyama mouths at Shouyou’s shoulder. Kageyama’s fingers release Shouyou’s hip to slide down the crease where Shouyou’s thigh meets his torso and trace the edge of the bandage there. Shouyou throws his head back.

“Kageyama,” Shouyou pants, not sure if he’s trying to refute Kageyama’s statement or beg for more.

“Is this okay?” Kageyama’s voice asks as he introduces his teeth to Shouyou’s shoulder with light nips. The hand that isn’t holding himself up is still tracing that sensitive line of Shouyou’s skin.

It’s strange to hear Kageyama’s voice without feeling his lips form words. Over the last several days Shouyou has gotten used to not seeing Kageyama’s lips move but feeling Kageyama’s mouth at his neck while speaking clearly adds a whole new level of strange. Kageyama could probably keep talking with anything in his mouth. Anything.

“Only if you’re okay with it,” Shouyou pushes out around a groan.

“Okay with it?” Kageyama asks, biting down on Shouyou’s shoulder. Shouyou arches his back and Kageyama tongues at the spot he just bit. “I’ve been thinking about this.”

Shouyou whines as Kageyama finally moves from that crease to trace patterns over Shouyou’s lower abdomen. 

“Me too,” Shouyou admits.

Kageyama raises his head to stare at Shouyou for a second, his eyes dark and hooded. Shouyou slides his hand from Kageyama’s hair and down across his collarbone and then down farther to smooth his palm against Kageyama’s side and then tuck the tips of his fingers under the waistband of Kageyama’s ridiculous pants. Kageyama shivers and his eyes drop down to Shouyou’s lips.

“Kiss me,” Shouyou says breathlessly.

Kageyama immediately leans down to slide his lips over Shouyou’s. His free hand is apparently tired of wasting time because it makes its way down to drag fingers through the curls around the base of Shouyou’s dick.

Shouyou moans into the kiss and Kageyama licks at Shouyou’s bottom lip. Shouyou digs his fingers into Kageyama’s skin and Kageyama sighs into Shouyou’s mouth in return.

With a light touch Kageyama traces up the length of Shouyou all the way to the tip. Shouyou’s mouth falls open into a gasp as Kageyama circles the head of him with the pads of his fingers. Kageyama closes around Shouyou’s bottom lip with his teeth and tugs lightly before letting go to pant against his lips. Shouyou whines out Kageyama’s name.

Suddenly Shouyou desperately needs to touch Kageyama. He shoves at Kageyama’s pants with the hand that isn’t holding himself up and is surprised by how easily they slide down. Kageyama never did up the front laces of his pants, he realizes. He works the leather down past Kageyama’s hips so he can grab the skin there and Kageyama wraps his hand around Shouyou’s dick fully in response. Shouyou’s hips jerk automatically at the feeling of Kageyama’s skin surrounding him.

“Impatient,” Kageyama’s voice growls.

Shouyou navigates his way to Kageyama’s arousal by touch. “Don’t be rude, Kageyama.”

Kageyama groans, an actual sound reverberating from his chest instead of being pulled from the air like magic, when Shouyou gets his hand around him. Shouyou gives a slow tug and Kageyama matches him. 

Not to be outdone, Kageyama swipes his thumb over Shouyou’s tip on the next stroke. It feels mind numbingly good and Shouyou tilts his head back and cries out. Kageyama scrapes his teeth down the column of Shouyou’s throat and does it again.

Maybe Shouyou’s just been on edge too much since he met Kageyama and has been forced to watch him parade around in all his half naked glory all the time but he finds that he’s getting close already. His hips roll up again when Kageyama twists his wrist slightly on the next stroke and Shouyou mimics him which earns him a heavy sigh and the sound of his name in Kageyama’s usual disembodied voice.

Kageyama is back to his previous spot of Shouyou’s shoulder except this time he’s sucking on the skin there. Shouyou tightens his grip and moves a little faster, breaking the matching pace that he and Kageyama had been keeping, and is rewarded by Kageyama’s hips snapping forward. Kageyama picks up the pace too, matching Shouyou’s new speed, and Shouyou lets his hips cant upward in steady thrusts.

He’s chasing the edge and Kageyama must know it because he pulls back from Shouyou’s shoulder to kiss him again, licking his way into Shouyou’s mouth.

Kageyama’s hips snap forward again and his voice rasps, “You feel so good.”

That’s all it takes. Shouyou pulls back from the kiss to keen into the air between them, his body bowing as he spills all over his stomach. Kageyama’s hips start moving on their own as Shouyou’s grip tightens unconsciously with his release. 

Just as Shouyou is coming down Kageyama curses and finds his own release in Shouyou’s hand. Shouyou watches as his jaw goes slack and his eyes squeeze shut, his head dropping forward. He looks amazing.

Kageyama doesn’t collapse as much as he slides himself sideways to lay on the ground next to Shouyou. Shouyou rolls towards him and tucks himself into Kageyama’s chest. Kageyama doesn’t complain, he just wraps an arm around Shouyou to hold him there.

“Is it weird that I think I love you even though we haven’t known each other that long?” Shouyou asks the smooth planes of Kageyama’s chest.

He feels Kageyama shrug. “If you’re weird then I’m weird.”

Shouyou yawns and then snickers. “Of course you’re weird, you’re a sword.”

“Dumbass,” Kageyama says. He sounds fond.

“I’m tired,” Shouyou says, pushing his sweaty forehead into Kageyama’s sweaty chest. It’s sticky but so is everything else right now.

“You can sleep once we’ve cleaned up.”

“Wanna sleep now.”

Shouyou can practically hear Kageyama rolling his eyes. He shifts around Shouyou and starts tugging at Shouyou’s shirt. “Come on, I’ll help you.”

Shouyou whines but lets Kageyama grab his hands and pull him upright. They make quick work of cleaning up and Kageyama even sets Shouyou’s bedroll out for him. With a little prompting, Kageyama slides in next to Shouyou. It’s a tight fit but it’s worth it when Shouyou falls asleep to Kageyama’s chest rising and falling beneath his cheek.

…

The next day they head out towards Shouyou’s hometown. By mid-afternoon they’ve reached the hill overlooking the houses, Shouyou’s favorite view of his childhood home. Kageyama hangs back. His fingers are tangled in Shouyou’s but he seems hesitant to head down into the town proper.

“What’s wrong?”

Kageyama looks at Shouyou. The midday light glints off of the blue in his eyes and the bronze of his bare chest. He still looks sinful in his tight leather pants and Shouyou wants to have him in a real bed again and again.

“I shouldn’t stay with you.”

Shouyou’s eyes go wide. “What do you mean?”

Kageyama looks away, squeezing Shouyou’s hand hard. “I thought about it last night. I’m putting you and your family in danger. They will come for me again.”

Shouyou steps forward and headbutts Kageyama in the face.

It hurts Shouyou’s head more than it hurts Kageyama. It’s like headbutting a steel wall. Shouyou makes an inarticulate sound of complaint at the pain. Kageyama releases Shouyou’s hand to cradle Shouyou’s face between both of his and peer at the red spot his chin had caused.

“Hey, dumbass, what do you think you’re doing?”

“Don’t be stupid, Kageyama. You said you belonged to me last night, you can’t just leave.”

Kageyama scowls at him. “I’m trying to protect you and your family.”

“We’ll protect them, together,” Shouyou insists. “You still haven’t taught me to fly.”

“I can’t teach you to fly,” Kageyama says, “I can only make you fly with me.”

“Whatever,” Shouyou waves off Kageyama’s technicalities, “the point is that you can’t just abandon me, okay. You’re my sword, you promised.”

Kageyama sighs and pulls Shouyou into a hug. Shouyou buries his face in Kageyama’s chest and breaths in the scent of polished metal.

“Fine,” Kageyama says, “but we’re going to be practicing your swordwork a lot.”

Shouyou grins against Kageyama’s skin. “Good.”

Shouyou pulls back and Kageyama lets him. With a smile Shouyou reaches for Kageyama’s hand and Kageyama lets him take it. Shouyou leads him down and into the town below where everything important in Shouyou’s entire life up until this point has resided.

Now that Kageyama is here Shouyou supposes that is still true.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't usually write explicit smut so I'm sorry if that was horribly awkward for anyone.
> 
> Another round of thanks to my supportive stream family. Xeylah, Steph, Bean, Momo, Lee, Quinn, and Dory. Your willingness to put up with my brainstorming and need for validation while writing things is amazing.
> 
> Follow me on [tumblr](https://talkativelock.tumblr.com) for more multifandom nonsense and screaming in the tags. My update schedule is also kept there in case you want to know what I'm working on next.


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